Monday, August 19, 2013

Hello Everyone. I love life, as always! Yes, it's hard but
it's great! My companion is great and we have a lot of work to do to activate a lot
of members but also bring nonmembers into the church! Her name is Sister Simkins and she is from New Mexico! She is very beautiful! She just
turned 19 before she came out and she has only been out for 3 months. She is very ovewhelmed with being a trainer and in a new area where she
has never been and driving and all but it's working out. We are learning
very quickly. I am becoming quite the navigator! She is the driver and it's her first time so things have been
interesting! Ha we've gone on the opposite side of the road a few
times;) ha don't worry God is watching over us! and she has also done
something called the "American solute". it's where you turn the
windshield wipers on instead of the blinker becase that is where is would be
in the cars in America! So funny! Good times.
The ward is great but only half attend church and the other half are
less active, so we have a lot of work to do there. Our ward has some
islanders in it but not many. I haven't quite felt a culture shock yet. They say you would more up in Auckland. I love it here, the people are
so kind and it's fun to talk to everyone and hear their stories.

We found a new investigator at church yesterday. Her friend Kharslee has
been bringing her for 3 weeks now and Mal(new inve.) likes it so far. She wants a change in her life, so we went to Sunday school and the
elders were teaching gospel principles and we were in there and then Kharslee and mal...then later a member came in. So the lesson was
actually on baptism but we were basically able to teach her like it was a
lesson and it was great. The members kept going off in some questionable
directions but it turned out okay and she felt the spirit really
strong. She committed to pray and I am so excited to see this gospel changed her
life. She wants something new and different bc she had a bad life and
she feels like moving to Hamilton was inspired and things are going a
lot better now. We are meeting with her tonight for a lesson and we will
teach her more about Jesus Christ and hopefully invite her to be
baptized depending on how the lesson goes. It is so wonderful ! I am so
happy!

Idk
my address yet, but we have a nice flat! it's really nice except we share
it with 3 other sisters who are in a 3-some. so 5 girls and 1 bathroom.
that's fun! ha but we work it out.

My investigator from online... I
emailed her the other day and am anxious to see how that went. I felt
really good about all the things I said in it.. hopefully she took it
well. I'm not hooked up to call from here yet, so hopefully I'll get
that soon!

All the new missionaries came
from the NZ MTC and I can't remember where most of them are from, but
they are great! We slept in a hotel the first night and that was fun because
they were like cottage hotel rooms, super cute.

So..... the toilets here don't
even spin the water it just gets flushed and sucked down. It's weird. Ha
also all of them you just push a button at the top of the toilet and the light switches are backwards. You flick it down to turn on, that was an interesting adjustment!

Sunday, August 18, 2013

The directors of the visitors center just sent some pictures along with this little story...

....we are the directors here
in New Zealand and want you to know that we love your daughter and she
is so awesome. There was a young lady that came in that was eight who
did not want to get baptized but her grandmother wanted her too. After
spending some time with her the young lady decided that she wanted to be
baptized. That record will not count on any reports the missionaries
fill out but it will be recorded in heaven and that is where it really
counts.

She has such a great companion that has only been here for ten weeks and
they make an awesome companionship. We will see great things from
them.

Thursday, August 15, 2013

Kia ora!Greetings from the New Zealand Hamilton Mission.Sister Bird arrived safely at the mission office and is already labouring in her new area.Her companion is Sister Simkins. They will be serving in the
Visitor's Centre as well as in the Rotokauri Stake in the Hamilton area.

Tuesday, August 13, 2013

(Mom Bird talking here) So we got a call from a very happy missionary last night. She was on her way to New Zealand and had a lay over in San Francisco for a couple of hours. She was happy happy happy and talking non stop about all she has learned in the MTC and how much she loved it. It was great to catch up and hear her sweet and excited voice. She is so excited and full of the spirit of the MTC and of being a representative of Christ. I am proud of her and know she will be a fantastic missionary! Will update more when we hear from her next week.

My
companion and district left yesterday. It was the saddest and hardest part of my
whole mission. I cried like a baby! It was rather embarrassing actually. I left
the bus stop and walked away holding it in the best i could. then an elder came
over and tried to ask me a question for a pole he was doing. I just broke into
tears and was uncontrollable. It was so hard to stop myself, I couldn't even tell
him what was wrong. He felt so bad and was like" sister I wish I could hug you
right now." Just then a couple of sisters came over and were trying to help me. she
asked if i needed anything and i just said "hug me". The lord blesses
you with people to help you out in every situation. I am so grateful for those
random sisters I didn't even know, they walked me to the residence where the
other sisters in my zone were, they are now my companions until tomorrow.

First Companion Sister Allen

MyDistrict

I have a new companion and she is great! I have learned so
much from her and the way she teaches. She is truly incredible. I love being a visitor center (vc) sister! We have so many more resources to teach the gospel than normal
missionaries do and we have all aspects of missionary work. I get the field,
computer and people coming into the vc! It's great because our purpose is still the
same! We had a super cool experience the other day teaching a man online. He
got on chat and asked about the Book of Mormon and we were able to tell him
about it and he was so interested and wanted to buy his own but we told him we
could send him one for free! ha but he didn't want us to have his address so he
found how to do it online and get it in dutch his native language. It was so
cool! The Lord knows what he's doing! Also we were able to help him see the
purpose of life thru the plan of salvation! He was so interested he wanted to
learn more! It is so great! I am so happy!

I have run into Jaime Fifield and Chloe Haderlie several times. It is wonderful to see them. They will both be amazing missionaries.